Event offers debates in the Greek public square

Guests who step into the Klarman Hall Atrium on the evening of Oct. 7 may feel as if they've entered a public square in ancient Greece.

An Arts Unplugged event, "2,500 Years of Democratic Speech," will offer a chance for students, faculty, staff and community members to perform key public speeches from antiquity and modernity on enduring questions of democratic life. The event, scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m., is free and open to the public.

The event is being organized by faculty members and postdoctoral fellows from the College of Arts and Sciences, including Verity Platt, professor of classics and art history; Jill Frank, the President White Professor of History and Political Science and the Robert J. Katz Chair of the Department of Government; Davide Napoli, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in government; and Talia Prussin, assistant professor of history.

The event celebrates the arrival of a new sculpture in the atrium: a portrait of the Greek statesman Demosthenes, dressed in the cloak of an Athenian citizen and holding a papyrus scroll.

"Celebrated for his supreme rhetorical skill, Demosthenes overcame physical challenges, including a stammer, to become one of the leading voices of democratic Athens," Platt said. "His oratory was forged in the intense legal and political debates of the Classical city-states and sharpened in the face of the encroaching tyranny of Philip of Macedon."

Demosthenes was an important model for Cicero in his own efforts to forestall the collapse of the Roman Republic, said Frank, noting that Demosthenes' style inspired the crafting of public speech centuries later, in both Europe and North America.

During the event, speakers will share excerpts from famous speeches by ancient figures such as Demosthenes, Cicero and Pericles, and also excerpts from speeches by William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Toni Morrison, M.A. '55, and Zohran Mamdani that exemplify the power of speech across 2,500 years to constitute and reconstitute a "demos" ("the people") of a democracy, according to the organizers.

Sign up for a speaking slot or join the audience to add your voice to the crowd.

A reception will follow the event, which is part of the Cornell's #America250 initiative. It is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, along with the departments of classics, government and history, and the Humanities Scholars Program.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.